Assignments (homes assigned to agents by banks and in pre-marketing and pre-listing status) have slowed dramatically in the past few weeks. We haven’t gotten a new assignment for a long time, and every Bank Owned Listing Agent I talk to has told me they are experiencing the same. Changes to State laws are the reason for the backlog, as banks are busy training and equipping their loss mitigation and foreclosure departments to comply with new requirements. However, There is a huge wave of them coming!

The inventory of unsold homes is actually growing right now, even though we have seen higher sales numbers for seven straight months, the Sacramento Business Journal says in a related article. these area homes that have been reposessed but have not been marketed, a lot of them obviously haven’t even been assigned.

One Keller Williams Bank Owned Mega Agent said in a panel discussion we had the other day that several servicing companies he is working for have cancelled all vacations for their Asset Managers for the next few months, because they have so much work…

This is going to be a very interesting next few months to see how our market reacts to another glut of inventory; if it comes. We have seen such a huge increase in demand, and banks are finally realizing that price sells (they just keep pricing them lower, knowing that they will sell quickly). The Bank’s Loss mitigation or pre-foreclosure departments are also now closing short sales at a much faster and more predictable rate, this will also help to quicken the pace of getting these distressed properties off the market.

The Sacramento Association of Realtors RESIDENTIAL RESALE STATISTICS FOR October 2007says that prices continue to erode, (the median priced home for the Sacramento area in October fell another 4.4% to just $305,893, which is a 15% decline in the last year. But transaction numbers are still rising.